Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Smart Alex can read the signs

Life is a series of decisions. This one was staring A-Rod in the face.

When you go to an MLB game and see Alex Rodriguez, he’s an automaton. He’ll do his standard machinations when he steps into the batter’s box, and take his customary deep breath. You don’t think of him as one who would ever sacrifice, until now.

He won’t garner a whole lot of sympathy for cheating with PEDs (baseball’s WMDs) while he was the highest-paid player in baseball. But he has come clean in a round-about way and America will forgive, if not forget.

The other choices were to be indignant (Bonds), defiant (Clemens), or evasive (McGwire). All three now are persona non grata with both MLB and their once-adoring public. Rodriguez took the path not taken, and for that alone, he should be respected.

Like everything Rodriguez does, this move seems very calculated. His unwillingness to reveal much in the way of specifics in the Gammons interview still leaves a bad taste. But, he admitted to a lot more than Jason Giambi, who continues to be popular in the baseball community.

Contrition is the key. This discussion, like any other from this generation in this sport, has a shelf-life. A-Rod’s playing career will almost certainly out-live it.

If anything, it opens the floodgates for many others to come forward who experimented during an era in which PEDs were overlooked by the baseball hierarchy and the athletes went untested.

Alex Rodriguez has stepped forward and shown some character in this February moment. Now Yankee fans, like myself, will expect our faith to be rewarded by him this October.

2 comments:

For the people that ask why did he lie to Katie Curic...that's easy, put yourself in that position and honestly tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing. So I don't hold anything against him for doing that.

He definitely could have give more info in his interview, for instance...who gave it to you? I understand him not exactly knowing what he took, I've taken some "energy boosters" and I am sure there could have been something in there that had some fancy name that i would have no idea of. However, I definitely remember who gave it to me. The first time I dabbled in the wacky green stuff, I could tell you exactly who was there, who gave it to me, what the weather was like and this was over 10 years ago.

Maybe he decided to keep that info to himself because as he said, he has no one to blame but himself and I kind of respect that. Ultimately it was his bad decision to take whatever he took so what does it matter who gave it to him?

So is he Hall of Fame worthy? That question will be easier to answer at the end of his career - let's see what he does from here on out. My prediction - he is absolutely going to MASH this summer. He has all the reasons in the world to go out there and destroy the baseball and for a guy obsessed with his image, I can't see any reason why he wouldn't be driven more then ever this season.

So for fantasy owners...make Alex Rodriguez your first pick this year, you will thank me later.

Can't say that I agree with either of you Yankee fans. First, he can NOT be respected for what he did. He spoke because he got caught. 5+ years have gone by since that testing. Not until SI gets ahold of his name does he say anything. I dont want to hear about the Clemens' and the Bonds of the world...this is about A Rod. We dont need to compare how one person fessed up to another. A-Rod showed ZERO character. He still dodged many of the questions from Gammons, probably just as Boras instructed him to do. As we all know, Alex doesnt do much on his own...just look at how he has been trying to imitate Jeter for years...